(1) The counties to be included in the Pat Harrison Waterway District. Each member of the Pat Harrison Waterway Commission, as created by virtue of Sections 51-15-1 through 51-15-9, and any county through which the Pascagoula, Leaf, and Chickasawhay Rivers and Tallahala Creek run, or other counties having tributaries to such streams or which border on said streams, may be included in the district.

(2) The necessity and desirability for the developments and construction of suitable facilities.

(3) A general description of the purposes of the contemplated works, and a general description of the plan.

The petition shall be filed with as many copies as there are parties defendant.

The board of water commissioners of the State of Mississippi shall be made a party defendant, and the chancery clerk shall furnish the board of water commissioners with a copy of the petition with attached exhibits. Each county named in the petition shall be joined as a party defendant by service of process on the president of the board of supervisors thereof, and the chancery clerk shall furnish a copy of the petition to each such president. Whenever any municipality having a population according to the most recent federal census of ten thousand (10,000) or more is included in such proposed district, such municipality shall be made a party defendant.

It shall not be necessary that any landowners in the counties to be included in said proposed district be named in the petition, or be made parties defendant. The chancellor of the chancery court of Forrest County, Mississippi, shall have jurisdiction of the entire waterway district for the purposes of this article. Such jurisdiction may be exercised by the chancellor in term time or in vacation, as provided in this article.